The authors of the Declaration of Independence outlined a bold vision for America: a nation in which all people would be free and equal. More than two hundred years later, it has yet to be achieved. Though generations of civil rights activism have led to important gains in legal, political, social, employment, educational, and other spheres, the forced removal of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of those of African descent marked the beginnings of a system of racial injustice from which our country has yet to break free. From our public schools where students of color are too often confined to racially isolated, underfunded, and inferior programs, to our criminal justice system that disproportionately targets and incarcerates people of color and criminalizes poverty, to the starkly segregated world of housing, the dream of full equality remains an elusive one.

In pursuit of a world free of discrimination, the Racial Justice Program brings impact lawsuits in state and federal courts throughout the country, taking on cases designed to have a significant and wide-reaching effect on communities of color. In coalition with ACLU affiliates in each state, other civil rights groups, and local advocates, we lobby in local and state legislatures and support grassroots movements. Through these efforts, we strive to educate and empower the public on a variety of issues, including race as it relates to criminal justice, economic justice, and inequality in education; affirmative action; and American Indian rights.

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Race and Criminal Justice

Racial bias in our criminal justice system keeps more black people on probation and in prison than ever before. The ACLU's Racial Justice Program works to reform policies that unfairly target people of color.

For much of the country’s history, formal and explicit racial restrictions prevented people of color from accessing the mainstays of economic life, including employment and homeownership. Focusing especially on issues relating to credit and homeownership, the Racial Justice Program uses litigation and other advocacy to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity is not allocated according to race.

Over 60 years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, but educational inequity continues to plague students of color in under-resourced and overpoliced schools nationwide. Through strategic litigation and advocacy campaigns, the ACLU Racial Justice Program works to promote initiatives that help ensure access to high-quality education and facilities for all students and to challenge policies that criminalize students for minor misbehavior in school.

The ACLU Racial Justice Program actively supports affirmative action to secure racial diversity in educational settings, workplaces, and government contracts, to remedy continuing systemic discrimination against people of color, and to help ensure equal opportunities for all people. As part of this commitment, we are working to defend affirmative action in states that are threatened by a civil rights rollback.

American Indian tribes have suffered discrimination and injustice at the hands of the government since the country's founding, and our government's heinous treatment of American Indian tribes over the last several centuries reverberates to the present.